Archive for August 2016

The Word of God rings clear and true: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2Chronicles 7:14).

The killings continue to rise. The divisions seem to widen even more. The indifference to the violations of the Commandments of God is spreading. We must not give up.

We will stand up for the moral right. We will resist the moral wrong. We will stand and defend every person’s life and dignity. We will shield the weak from harm. We will protect the confused from error. We will guide and enlighten the lost. We will teach, even it seems like a voice in a hostile wilderness, till the day we die, that right is right and wrong and wrong and we will not withdraw from mission of the Lord. Our call is not to be successful but to be faithful.

Our first armor is prayer. So let us pray even more.

The enclosed Prayer for the Healing of the Nation in English, Pangasinan and Tagalog must be prayed before the start of every Mass for nine days starting August 30 until September 7, 2016. We trust in the mercy of God to answer our prayers for healing when we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In all Catholic schools in the archdiocese, this prayer must be prayed as the opening prayer for the first class period in every classroom insuring that the pupils have copies so they can pray in unison.

Believe in miracles and the power of a praying people. When we pray together, we are strong with the strength of God.

Do not give up! Hope in the Lord!

Sincerely yours,

+SOCRATES B. VILLEGAS

Archbishop of Lingayen Dagupan

——-

LORD HEAL OUR LAND

Prayer for the Nation

Father of endless mercy, we come to you,

a people wounded and torn by issues that have divided us

into opposing, bickering, quarreling and even hating factions.

We beg you for unity; we ask for healing;

we beseech you to forgive our sins and restore to our land

the joy and the peace that you alone can give.

Teach us once more the wisdom of the Scriptures:

that the help of man is vain

and that our strength is not in princes, but in You.

We pray for the leaders of our nation.

Let them acknowledge your sovereignty,

so that they may render due homage to your image that is in all.

Send your Spirit so that the miracle of Pentecost

by which all understood each other

may prevail over the Babel

by which our leaders slur and embarrass one another.

Let tongues of Divine fire settle on them as they did on the apostles

so that their words may be words of peace, joy, truth and love.

There is so much hatred, Father, and hatred always kills!
We pray that you purge our country of crime,

particularly the heinous crimes of drug-dealing

and the endemic corruption that impoverishes our nation.

But grant us too the wisdom to recognize

that these evils have their roots in all our hearts:

in our envy, greed, avariciousness and implacable desire for even more.

But have pity too on those who have lost their lives in the present purge.

We pray for them, because all life is precious in your sight,

and no man or woman is ever so unworthy of the redemption

that your Son bought us all!

Console their families and show their children the paths of righteousness –

as you alone can judge and teach what is righteous!

Finally, we pray for your Church

that it may be true to its prophetic vocation,

for it is when times our difficult and trying that you ask your Church

to be the servant of the nation by speaking Your Word.

Let not our fear and trepidation overcome the zeal for your house

and your truth that should consume us.

We know our sins.

We our humbled by our failings.

But we are also aware that when the prophets of old

pleaded to you their sinfulness,

you commanded them anyway to proclaim what you wanted proclaimed reminding them that it was not their word

that they were to announce but yours.

Forgive our sins in the Church and make us strong in your service

so that we may continue to be salt of the earth and light of the world.
Long ago, the woman of Galilee whom you chose to be the Mother of Your Son asked Juan Diego: “Am I not your mother?”

To our Mother’s prayers then, in this hour of need, we entrust ourselves.

In obedient observance of the mandate of the Holy Father that dioceses institute programs to carry on the message of the mercy beyond this current jubilee year, we shall institutionalize a MINISTRY OF MERCY in the Archdiocese of Lingayen Dagupan whose main thrust will be threefold, namely:

1. To promote an ongoing catechetical instructions (Basic Orientation Seminar on Mercy) among all sectors of the Church and society on the value of mercy in Christian life;

2. To initiate concrete sustainable programs in parishes and basic ecclesial communities with regard to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy;

3. To promote the devotion to the Divine Mercy in preparation for the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy due to be held in the Philippines this January 2017.

The Ministry of Mercy will be under the direction of the parish priest or school director on that level and will fall under the umbrella of the ONLA, our archdiocesan council of the laity.

Kindly send three interested leaders from the parish or school who are not yet involved in any parish ministry or linked to a church organization to our orientation meeting on SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 AT 2:00 pm at the Guerrero Hall in the Chancery.

Although ONLA has its own spiritual director, the Ministry of Mercy will have its particular spiritual director, Father Christian Joy Bataoil, who will insure that the programs of the Ministry of Mercy as envisioned in Misericordiae Vultus will be carried out faithfully.

Kindly discern and choose well the three lay leaders that you will send to the orientation seminar. The life of the Ministry of Mercy will depend greatly on the fervor of the pioneer ministers.

This message is to be read in IN FULL in place of the homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time,August 7, 2016, in all the churches and oratories in the Archdiocese of Lingayen Dagupan. I want to address the People of God during these trying times.

LET HUMANITY IN US SPEAK!

I do not have to be a bishop to say this. I do not have to be a Catholic to be disturbed by the killings that jar us every time we hear or watch or read the news.

Lay aside the bishop’s robes and the CBCP position. I am only a human being. My humanity is in grief. I am in utter disbelief. If this is just a nightmare wake me up and assure me it is not true. This is too much to swallow.

I am a human being. That is all it takes for me to stand up and say ENOUGH. The humanity in me is hurting each time a fellow human is hurt. A portion of my humanity dies when a fellow human dies. Who can say the killed is innocent or guilty? Both the guilty and the innocent are humans. The humanity in me bleeds each time a fellow human is killed. The humanity in me cries each time I see a parent and a child grieve over loved ones killed on the sidewalk or thrown in grassy areas hogtied or masked with tape. The humanity in me grieves for fellow humans who do not mind killing criminals in the belief that their murders will lessen evil in the world. For the killer and the killed I grieve. We become less human when we kill our brethren. Every human is my brother. Every human is my sister. Everything and everyone around me is brother and sister for me.

Have we become so few who are still disturbed by the killings? Is not humanity going down to the dregs when bloodthirsty humans encourage the killers and ask for more blood? When tears are replaced by wide smiles each time a human is killed, I shake my head and ask “What has happened to humanity?” Can we still cry with those who cry? Are we no more hurt and pained by the killings that has reached hundreds now for the past two months? In our dream to wipe out drug addiction are we not becoming a “killing fields” nation?

You will tell me “Let us give the anti-drug campaign a chance”? The youth need a safe and wholesome environment without the menace of drugs. We share the dream. Spare our children and youth from the evil of drug abuse. It is a great dream for young humanity.

If drugs indeed kill, will killing the suspects remove the menace? Are we providing our children a safe haven, by teaching them by our tolerance of murders, that killing suspected criminals without fair hearing is a morally acceptable way to eradicate crime? From a generation of drug addicts shall we become a generation of street murderers? Will the do-it-yourself justice system assure us of a safer and better future?

There is a little voice of humanity in us that I believe is disturbed by the killings; but that voice of disturbed humanity is drowned out by the louder voice of revenge or silenced by the sweet privileges of political clout.

I pray that humanity be restored. I pray that decent humanity rise up to defend those who now live in fear that they will be next to be killed.

I pray that humanity be regained so that the killers may listen to the voice of conscience–that conscience that has been dulled by the sight of too much blood everywhere.

Will you kill me again and again on the social media for saying this?

At this point. I do not care. I am ready to die. I have gotten used to be being bashed and “killed” on social media. A part of me has died a hundred times in every killing I have seen these past weeks. What is another death for me? In this valley of death, I grieve. In the life after, I will rejoice. Barbarism will not have the last laugh. Reason will prevail. Humanity will win in the end.

I believe. I refuse to be forsaken in this belief. I believe in humanity.

The recent increase of vigilante killings related to the drug abuse problem brings us disconcerting pastoral grief and calls for concerted pastoral action. There must be a Gospel inspired alternative to killing drug pushers and users. While we vehemently protest the increase of summary killings, we must get our pastoral act together to minister to those in need of mercy and pastoral compassion as they dream of better lives after recovering from drug abuse.

On August 12, Friday, from 8:00 am to 4pm at the Lay Formation Center in Bonuan Gueset, there will be a whole day seminar workshop on family ministry in caring for drug abusers. This is open to ALL PRIESTS and selected catechistswho are working for the beneficiaries of the 4P’s program. Due to the limitations of the guest facilitators, we can only accommodate a total of 200 seminar participants. IT IS NECESSARY TO STAY FOR THE WHOLE DAY SEMINAR due to the process nature of the workshop. Please be at the registration desk by 7:30 am on August 12 because the seminar needs to begin promptly. There are no fees to pay.

We will open a ten session training workshop for FACILITATORS for Narcotics Anonymous that we plan to open in selected parishes in the Archdiocese of Lingayen Dagupan. We need Narcotics Anonymous Ministers who are process oriented with a genuine caring attitude for people with sufficient communication skills and have some basic counselling skills.

Please diligently look for volunteers in the community who can meet the requirements. We need twenty facilitators for the first batch of training. Please submit these data to the Chancery email rcald08@gmail.com:

Full name and address/ Mobile phone number/ Birthday and Age/ Gender/ Educational Attainment/ Current Profession/

The deadline for the submission of data is August 12, 2016. I plead with you to do the search diligently. This is certainly open to all priests provided they finish the full training. The seminar training will start by the third week of August with sessions from 9:00 am to 6:00pm twice a week. There are no fees to pay. THIS IS AN URGENT PASTORAL CONCERN. We cannot let people die and get killed.

Let us unite against drugs but let us offer an alternative to killing criminals. Our message is hope for the sinner not death. Our weapon is love not vengeance. The blood of the Lord is enough; the killings must stop. Let us offer hope.